The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus equipped with a storage unit such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD).
In an office such as a company office, a hospital office, and a government office, a printing device and PCs are usually connected to a network. The printing device may be moved to another place for various circumstances such as rearrangement or change of organization. Here, when the network connecting the printing device is not changed before and after the movement, a user in a department before the movement may misprint by a printing device after the movement. The user who misprinted may look for the printing device that printed his or her printed matter. Further, the user may go and take the printed matter. This is bothering. In addition, a person who doesn't have a right to view may view the printed matter. Concerning these problems when the printing device is moved, the following technique is known.
a printing device is known that includes a storage battery for supplying power, forms characters and the like based on print data on a recording medium, detects acceleration of the printing device, determines whether or not the printing device is moved based on the detected acceleration, and does not perform printing of characters and images based on print data on the recording medium when it is determined that the printing device is moved. By the storage battery, even in a case where the printing device is not powered on, acceleration of the printing device is detected, and it is detected that installation place of the printing device is changed, so as not to form characters and images on the recording medium based on print data.
Concerning power control, the image forming apparatus has a normal mode and a sleep mode. For example, the normal mode is a mode that enables quick start of a job. In the normal mode, power is supplied to individual portions of the image forming apparatus. In addition, the sleep mode is a mode in which power consumption of the image forming apparatus in a standby state is decreased. In the sleep mode, power supply to some portions of the image forming apparatus is stopped. For example, in the sleep mode, light emitting portions such as an LED and a display panel are turned off.
The image forming apparatus operates by power supplied from a commercial power source. Usually, a power cord is used for connecting to the commercial power source. One end of the power cord is inserted into an outlet. The other end of the power cord is connected to the image forming apparatus. When the image forming apparatus is moved, the power cord is stretched. Then, the power cord may be disconnected from the image forming apparatus or from the outlet. When the power cord is disconnected, power supply to the image forming apparatus is cut off.
The image forming apparatus in the sleep mode is in a quiet state in which light emitting portions are turned off. The image forming apparatus does not appear to operate. For this reason, a user may move the image forming apparatus in the sleep mode. However, there is an image forming apparatus that reads or writes the storage unit in an intermittent manner even in the sleep mode. The storage unit is a large capacity storage unit for storing data in a nonvolatile manner. In the sleep mode, it cannot be known externally whether or not the storage unit is being read or written.
When the image forming apparatus in the sleep mode is moved and the power cord is disconnected, the storage unit may be being read or written. There is a problem that when the power cord is disconnected during reading or writing the storage unit, data may be broken, or the storage unit itself may be broken.
Here, the conventional technique described above detects a change in the installation place of the printing device based on acceleration. Then, printing is disabled. However, it cannot support movement of the image forming apparatus in the sleep mode, disconnect of the power cord, and breakdown of data or the storage unit. Therefore, it cannot solve the problem described above.